Last Surviving Confederate Veterans
[Note: Most cases are questionable]
Candidates
Pleasant Crump (Dec. 23, 1847-Dec. 31, 1951) of Alabama
Felix M. Witkoski (Jan. 5, 1850?-Feb. 3, 1952) of California
Thomas Edwin Ross (July 19, 1850?-March 27, 1952) of California
William Loudermilk (Oct. 23, 1848?-Sept. 18, 1952) of Arkansas
William Jordan Bush (July 10, 1845?-Nov. 11, 1952) of Georgia
Arnold Murray (June 10, 1846?-Nov. 26, 1952) of South Carolina
William Townsend (April 12, 1846?-Feb. 22, 1953) of Louisiana
William Albert Kiney (Feb. 10, 1843?-June 23, 1953) of Indiana
Thomas Riddle (April 16, 1846?-April 2, 1954) of Tennessee
William Lundy (Jan. 18, 1848?-Sep. 1, 1957) of Alabama/Florida
John B. Salling (May 15, 1846?-March 16, 1959) of Virginia
Walter Williams (Nov. 14, 1842?-Dec. 19, 1959) of Miss./Texas (debunked)
William J Bush is listed as born July 1846 in the 1900 census, and aged 65 in the April 1910 census (suggesting a birth date of 1844). This suggests that he was at least 106.
Walter Williams was generally acknowledged as the 'last Confederate veteran' in the 1950's newspapers. However, in mid-1959 an exposé by the New York Times revealed that he was in fact born in 1854 in Itawamba County, MS and not 1842 as claimed. Still, due to the fact that John Salling and all the other 'last claimants' were dead, and in part to local pride, Walter Williams was mythically celebrated as the 'last Confederate veteran' in December 1959 and January 1960. Even the U.S. president joined in. However, all agree today that Walter Williams was a fraud.
John Salling's status is also disputed. In 1991, William Marvel examined the claims of Salling and several other "last Civil War veterans" for a piece in the Civil War history magazine Blue & Gray. Marvel found census data that indicated Salling was born in 1858, not 1846. In the same piece, Marvel confirmed Woolson's claim to be the last surviving Union veteran, and asserted that Woolson was the last genuine Civil War veteran on either side. However, Marvel did not present his research on several other Confederate claims from the 1950's, some of which appear to be genuine. Although in 1900 Salling supplied a birth date of March, 1858, he appears to have been born around 1856, still too late to have served in the Confederate army. The 1860 census lists him as four, and the 1870 census as fourteen. Read obit.
William Lundy is listed as one year old on the 1860 census, and from 1870 until 1930 he gave census marshals ages that reflected birth dates as early as 1853 and as late as 1860. He did not push his birth date back to the 1840s until he applied for a Confederate pension from the state of Florida.